feature phones

Smartphone Sales Exceeded Feature Phone Sales For The First Time (Gartner)
New Data From Gartner shows smartphone sales grew 46% during the second quarter of 2013 to 225 million units. That was good enough for a 51.8% share of total mobile handset sales for the quarter, marking the first time that smartphones outsold feature phones and all other mobile handsets

This information is retrieved by matching user information on Facebook with e-mail addresses and phone numbers stored in loyalty program databases.

Facebook is bolstering its presence in emerging markets through efforts such as Facebook For Every Phone — an app on feature phones that delivers a pared-down user experience — which is now used by more than 100 million people each month.

Q1 2013 marks the first time that smartphones made up the majority of cellphones shipped across the world, according to numbers from industry analyst IDC. 216 million handsets with computer-like functionality left factories compared to 419 million total, making up a solid 51.6 percent of the pie. Another trend spotted by the pollster was the emergence of Chinese phone makers, particularly ZTE and Huawei, who’ve notably displaced Blackberry and Nokia in the top five for smartphones sold.

Meanwhile, Samsung improved its lead over Apple in smartphone shipments over last quarter, jumping from 29 percent to a 32.7 percent share in Q1, while Apple slid from 21.8 percent to 17.3 percent. Sony dropped out of the top 5 in that category, while LG surged to 3rd place at 10.3 million units shipped, with Huawei and ZTE rounding out the top 5. Meanwhi! le, Sams ung and Nokia continued to dominate overall cellphone shipments with a 27.5 and 14.8 percent share of the overall market, respectively. However, Nokia itself isn’t too optimistic about the feature phone portion of those sales continuing, as it mentioned in its last financial statement. And the fact that people are happy to surf the web on their phones? As we’ve seen, that doesn’t bode too well for the computer industry.

Right heels of too many financialreports and yet more smartphone research, IDC has weighed in with its own thoughts and analysis, noting that demand for smartphones is — unsurprisingly — not letting up. While the global market for mobile phones grew by 1.9 percent in the last quarter, “strong holiday smartphone sales” meant that units shipped were almost equal that of cheaper feature phones. 219.4 million smartphones shipped — 45.5 percent of all phone shipments — was slightly below IDC’s optimistic predictions for Q4, but it’s still been a notable quarter for new competitors like Huawei, which elbowed LG out from the top 5. IDC’s senior analyst Kevin Restivo puts it down to Huawei’s advantage in low-cost devices, not to mention its placement within China — a country that can’t get enough of phones.

ZTE also placed within IDC’s Top 5 smartphone vendor leaderboard in the last quarter, with a 4.3 percent marketshare, although Samsung (29 percent) and Apple (21.8 percent) continued to dominate the top spots. Samsung saw a 76 percent increase since Q4 2011, extending its lead over the iPhone maker, while Huawei, now third, saw an 89.5 percent year-on-year increase on its smartphone shipments. Estimates on Sony‘s shipments place it fourth, with a decent 55.6 percent change since the same quarter in 2011.

Annual smartphone sales saw a more familiar pecking order, with Samsung, Apple, Nokia, HTC and RIM filling the lead positions. Year-on-year changes for Nokia, HTC and RIM were negative, likely affected on both sides by the aforementioned champions and new contenders — the Finnish phone maker dropped shipments by 54.6 percent according to IDC’s figures. Prefer your metrics and year-on-year changes tabled? Well, we’ve added both the quarterly and annual summaries right after the break.

Mobile-only users also account for a larger share of new mobile users. Mobile-only users were 39 percent of new mobile users added in the quarter, up from 35 percent in the second quarter.

Expect the proportion of mobile-only new users to keep rising, for two reasons: the growth of smartphones in the developing world, and increased access to Facebook through feature phones.

As Quartz reported, Facebook joined with carriers to roll out a text-only version on feature phones worldwide. Facebook Zero allows consumers to access Facebook without incurring data charges.

Facebook’s next billion users will likely include a substantial number of mobile-only consumers, raising the stakes on mobile monetization efforts. In terms of Facebook Zero, mobile advertising is not the most likely avenue to monetization. Text ads would be difficult to integrate. Also, audiences on feature phones aren’t likely to entice major brands. As Quartz points out, other strategies might include commerce or micropayments.

Mobile-only users also account for a larger share of new mobile users. Mobile-only users were 39 percent of new mobile users added in the quarter, up from 35 percent in the second quarter.

Expect the proportion of mobile-only new users to keep rising, for two reasons: the growth of smartphones in the developing world, and increased access to Facebook through feature phones.

As Quartz reported, Facebook joined with carriers to roll out a text-only version on feature phones worldwide. Facebook Zero allows consumers to access Facebook without incurring data charges.

Facebook’s next billion users will likely include a substantial number of mobile-only consumers, raising the stakes on mobile monetization efforts. In terms of Facebook Zero, mobile advertising is not the most likely avenue to monetization. Text ads would be difficult to integrate. Also, audiences on feature phones aren’t likely to entice major brands. As Quartz points out, other strategies might include commerce or micropayments.

Mobile-only users also account for a larger share of new mobile users. Mobile-only users were 39 percent of new mobile users added in the quarter, up from 35 percent in the second quarter.

Expect the proportion of mobile-only new users to keep rising, for two reasons: the growth of smartphones in the developing world, and increased access to Facebook through feature phones.

As Quartz reported, Facebook joined with carriers to roll out a text-only version on feature phones worldwide. Facebook Zero allows consumers to access Facebook without incurring data charges.

Facebook’s next billion users will likely include a substantial number of mobile-only consumers, raising the stakes on mobile monetization efforts. In terms of Facebook Zero, mobile advertising is not the most likely avenue to monetization. Text ads would be difficult to integrate. Also, audiences on feature phones aren’t likely to entice major brands. As Quartz points out, other strategies might include commerce or micropayments.

Android and iOS dominate the smartphone landscape in the U.S., but a lot of customers are not buying smartphones at all. In fact, 37% of phones sold during the first quarter of 2012 were feature phones running older platforms.

Android also made up 37% of all phones sold during the quarter, with iOS trailing well behind at 16%. RIM and Microsoft took up the rear. But with all those customers still buying feature phones, Microsoft and other competitors still have time to make up the gap.

Note that these are new phone sales during the quarter, not market share. Overall, non-smart phones are over 50% of the installed base.

Apple’s iMessage is killing off the overpriced text message, at least for a narrow group of iPhone owners.

Graphic designer Neven Mrgan posted this chart showing how his text messaging use changed after Apple released iOS 5 with iMessage. As you can see, it dropped dramatically.

Most of Mrgan’s friends are iPhone owners, so iMessaging is free between them. If you own an iPhone but most of your friends are on Android, RIM, or feature phones, you’re still going to have to pay for text messages.

Regardless, the writing is on the wall for text messaging. Carriers are going to be losing one of their easiest sources of profits.

Digital Consigliere

Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.